












education Problem 

Una its Solution. 



BEING SEVEN CHAPTERS FROM 



HOW IT CAN BE DONE." 



^ 



-&4 



BY 



JOHN RICHARDSON, M.Inst.C.E., 

WITH FOREWORD BY 

Dr. A. RUSSEL WALLACE, 



LL.D., DC.L., F.R S., ETC. 






yfr 



" Until some Government comes into power resolved to remodel our 
whole Educational System we shall continue to struggle with cur 
better equipped neighbours under a heavy handicap." — Morning 
Leader, March 6. 1901. 






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r 






THE 



education Problem 

And Its Solution. 

BEING SEVEN CHAPTERS FROM 

'HOW IT CAN' BE DONE. 

BY 

JOHN RICHARDSON, M.Inst.C.E., 

WITH FOREWORD BY 

Dr. A. RUSSEL WALLACE, 

LL.D., D.C.L., P.R.S., ETC. 



" Until some Government comes into power resolved to remodel our 
whole Educational System we shall continue to struggle with our 
better equipped neighbours under a heavy handicap." — Morning 
Leader, March 6, igoi. 



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<+f (, 



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FOREWORD. 



From every side we now hear complaints of our imperfect 
system of education and the evils it inflicts upon us both at home 
and abroad. We may assume, therefore, that a great majority of 
our people recognise the importance of education, and "really wish 
that it should be as good as possible, and that the whole of our 
children should receive the fall benefits to be derived from it. 

All who hold these opinions should not only read, but carefully 
study this little pamphlet, in which the author has explained in 
detail, and in a clear and even fascinating manner, the most 
thorough and admirable system of education and training ever yet 
9et forth ; and has, further, demonstrated that, after the preliminary 
expenses of establishing and working the system till those who 
enter the schools as children quit them at the age of 21, the whole 
immense organisation will become self-supporting, and be no cost 
whatever to the ratepayers, while it must certainly become, in 
every way, an enormous gain to the whole community. 

Every humanitarian, every advocate for justice and for equal 
rights, must surely 'feel bound to support a proposal which does 
away with the terrible cruelty and injustice to which millions of 
helpless and innocent children all over our land are now exposed ; 
while every Christian, whose religion is not a mere form, and who 
really believes in the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man, 
must recognise the inherent right of every child to receive the best 
education and upbringing that can be given to it. 

What will be the immediate and the ultimate result of such a 
system of education it is not necessary to enquire, and perhaps 
impossible to predict. But, if education and refinement, and a true 
and full preparation for a life of physical and intellectual activity, 
are good things, their results must also be good. They will, at any 
rate, profoundly change for the better our local and imperial 



' 



governing bodies, both by supplying a much larger choice of intelli- 
gent candidates, and, more especially, by '.he production of a body 
of intelligent voters such as the world has never seen before. To 
such a body we may safely leave the social economy and civilisa- 
tion of the future. 

It is with the greatest confidence, therefore, and with a most 
profound sense of its importance that I recommend Mr. Richard- 
son's plan, in its entirety, to the careful consideration of my fellow- 
countrymen. 

ALFRED R. WALLACE. 
April 1 8, 1901. 



CHAPTER I. 



Conditions., 

For a Social Reform to be successful the following conditions 
must be complied with : — 

First, it must be possible; i.e., it must deal with human 
nature as it is, and not as it ought to be. 

Second, it must make no violent and sudden change in the con- 
stitution of society. 

Third, while the application is gradual, the effect should be 
immediate and certain. 

Fourth, it must be permanent in its effect ; and, as far as possible, 
automatic in its operation, when once started. 

Fifth, it must be just and equitable in its action, and fair in its 
application. 

Sixth, it must be elastic, so as to permit of indefinite expansion, 
modification, and perfection. 

It will be shown that all these conditions are complied with in 
the scheme which will be unfolded in the following pages, and 
which should commence with a complete system of maintenance, 
education, and training for all the children in our land. 

But a short time ago, State-paid maintenance and training 
were provided for three classes only of the community, viz., the 
Members of the Royal Family, the criminals in our gaols, and the 
pauper children in our workhouses. The State has now recognised 
its duty to educate the children of all classes, in addition to those 
previously mentioned. All that is required is an amplification of 
our present system of elementary education, to adapt it to our real 
needs. 

It will be admitted that a man is of value to himself and his 
fellows in proportion to the amount of goodness, strength, know- 
ledge, intelligence, and skill he possesses, and the industry he 
displays. That being so, it is the duty of the State to see that as 
many as possible of its members should have these qualities ; and 
m order to do this, every child should have, from its earliest years, 
an equal opportunity of receiving a sound physical, moral, intellectual, 
and technical training. The training should not only commence 
early, but be continued till each student's faculties become fully 
ripened and developed. 

To commence with, we should require in every city, town, and 
village an improvement in, and increased number of, Infant or 



Junior schools, suitable for children of both sexes of from four to 
seven years of age. The schools must be many in number, within 
easy distance of the children's homes ; not too large, about ioo 
children being considered a normal number of scholars. 

The buildings should be substantial and beautiful ; they should 
be erected in cheerful, airy situations, have extensive playgrounds, 
and also large play rooms. Each school should have also a well- 
fitted gymnasium, and two large swimming-baths. These latter, 
though considered already a necessary adjunct to some of the best 
schools in London, may seem at first sight an extravagance for a 
junior school ; but they are really of greater need and use for little 
children than for those grown up. 

No one who has ever spent much time in Venice, or any of the 
South Sea Islands, can have failed to notice the ease and grace 
with which even tiny children disport themselves in the water as if 
it was their native element. Little children are, as a rule, fond of 
being in the water, and can be taught to swim more easily than to 
walk, if trained properly. Further, a plunge bath every morning 
is a most valuable aid to health and cleanliness, and should form 
the first part of the day's school routine. 

Coming to school at, say, 8.30, boys and girls by separate 
entrances, the scholars would enter a suitable ante-room, or rooms ; 
and, leaving their own dresses, pass out at once into the bath foi 
about fifteen minutes. Passing out at the other end, they would 
don the school costume. This is a matter of more importance 
than seems at first sight. Instead of the common, and often very 
ugly, uniform, now used in many charity schools, which causes thr 
children to be objects of scorn or derision, the costumes worn should 
be of very good quality of material, and be as prettily and tastefully 
made as is compatible with their use as school uniforms. 

Coming, as the children would do, from homes with various 
standards of comfort, from extreme poverty to affluence, it is 
essential that they should be all placed upon the same level at once ; 
and that level must necessarily be the highest. Thus, their toilets 
finished, and their costumes donned, they would all be raised to the 
same social plane. 

There is a natural desire for distinction in every child's mind ; 
if this can be gratified by difference in dress, the weakest and most 
worthless faculties are stimulated ; but, granted uniformity in dress, 
while, if it be pretty and suitable, good taste is satisfied, yet moral, 
intellectual, and physical distinction is all that can be secured, and 
thus the highest faculties of the child are called into play. 

After the bath, about fifteen minutes should be spent by the 
whole school in smart physical exercises, such as marching and 
drilling. This over, all the scholars should be marched into the 
dining-room, where breakfast for all would be served. Then, 
ranged in order, a simple hymn should be sung, and a short prayer 
offered. 

A school of one hundred scholars should be divided into four 
groups or classes, such groups being presided over by a master or 



mistress, and, as will be seen later on, it would be part of the duty 
of the senior scholars to help to dress and superintend the baths, 
lining, and amusement of the little ones. 

The idea of giving food and clothing of the best, as well as 
instruction, to all the children of the land, may at first sight seem 
strange. But, as stated at the commencement of the chapter, it is 
already given in England to Princes, prisoners, and paupers ; so 
the idea is neither new, nor unconstitutional. Again, as is well 
known, in the large cities of France, Germany, and Sweden", as 
well as in London and Birmingham, free meals are already provided 
for a large proportion of the scholars, either by the State, Munici- 
pality, or voluntary agencies. The need then, is admitted, but is 
at present very imperfectly supplied ; and those getting supplied 
are frequently the children of idle, dissolute parents, who could, if 
they would, supply the food themselves. A premium is now put 
upon laziness and selfishness ; and the honest, industrious poor, 
as well as the struggling tradesman, and the heavily-taxed rich even, 
have a reasonable cause of complaint. When, however, the food 
and clothing supplied is the best that can be supplied, and is given 
— not to a selected few, but as a matter of right and law, to ALL, 
then all benefit, and none have cause of complaint. A definite and 
equal burden is at once lifted from all, and a definite and equal need 
is being supplied in the best possible manner. 

The cost to the country of providing food for a hundred children 
at one time and place is much less than if the food had to be pro- 
vided in fifty different homes, by fifty different persons ; and the 
advantages of common meals at school are many and great. Apart 
from the gain to health by insuring good and suitable food for all, 
the training in right habits at table, helpfulness, politeness and 
consideration for others, are all matters which can as well, or better, 
be taught at a dining table than at any other time. The masters, 
mistresses, and elder scholars presiding and helping, should be all 
models of courtesy and good manners ; and as in the Arab's tent, 
so in schools, colleges, barracks, and officers' mess rooms, it is found 
that the common meal tends largely to promote those feelings of 
brotherhood and comradeship which are among the best in our 
nature. 

Another meal should be provided at noon, the food being simple 
and abundant, but of the best quality, and cooked or prepared in 
the most perfect manner. Very special attention should be paid to 
provide from simple materials, pleasant, varied, and elegant repasts, 
in marked contrast to the often ill-cooked, monotonous, and waste- 
ful fare found in many, if not most English homes. 

It is unnecessary to give here anything like a time-table of the 
day's or the week's teaching ; but the principal aim of the First 
Grade Schools should be to develop the body, train the mind to 
think and observe, and educate the moral faculties ; so that all the 
children should be taught to love truth, honesty, and fairplay. The 
best of our Kindergarten Schools may fairly be taken as a model for 
the method of instruction. 



A good portion of the time each day should be given to the 
children, in which to employ themselves entirely at their own pleasure ; 
and their tastes and their habits should be specially noted at such 
times. 

While few, if any, lessons should be given to learn by heart, yet 
a start should be made with the very youngest, to teach them foreign 
languages. Two, at least, of the four teachers should be able to 
speak German or French perfectly. The words of command, in tin 
drilling lesson, should be given alternately in the three languages ; 
and the children taught to sing French and German songs. In this 
way, they would acquire a purity of accent, and naturalness of pro- 
nunciation which can never be attained in later years. 

If, in the First Grade Schools, the children merely learned how 
to walk and swim properly, how to use their eyes and hands 
intelligently, and gained a familiarity with the correct pronunciation 
of three languages, it would be an immense good. 

The school should be made a veritable children's paradise, and 
all its surroundings and associations should be pleasant and 
attractive. 

Lastly, provision should be made in most if not all the schools 
for sleeping accommodation for those children who have no homes 
of their own, or whose parents are unfitted to have the care of 
them. 

This is now done, more or less badly, ineffectually, and waste- 
fully in many ways by our State Orphanages (Workhouses), 
Foundling Hospitals, Children's Homes, and Reformatories. By 
this scheme it would be done, certainly, for all who needed it ; and, 
above all, it would be done well, cheaply, and pleasantly for the 
children, usefully for the nation, and without the slightest taint of 
degradation or charity. If anything, the children who slept on the 
school premises would occupy a slightly higher rank than those 
who went home, boarders in a good school always considering 
themselves as something better than day girls and boys. 

By this one forward step, we shall have done much toward the 
reduction of our national misery ; a heavy load will have been lifted 
from the shoulders of hundreds of thousands of struggling men and 
women. Nearly all, if not all the present horrors of starvation, 
neglect, and cruelty to children would cease to exist, a foundation 
would be laid for a strong, pure, intelligent and great nation ; and, 
even had all the money to be raised by taxation, it would be as 
nothing to a country, some of the inhabitants of which can afford 
to spend a thousand pounds over the education of a Dog to run for 
the Waterloo Cup ; and whose people, as a whole, accumulate, each 
year, over a hundred millions of pounds, for which no good use is 
found. When, however, we come to ways and means, it will be 
seen that no extra permanent burden need be laid upon the tax- 
payers of the land. 



CHAPTER II. 



Second Grade Schools. 

After four years spent in the Elementary Schools, we 
should have a body of trained children, numbering nearly two 
millions, with well-developed frames, and trained hands and eyes ; 
and with a higher standard of morals and intelligence than the 
children of England have ever before had. Their place would now 
be in the Second Grade Schools, where they would stay till 14 
years of age, by which time their ranks would be swollen by 
yearly additions from below, till they reached about four-and-a-half 
millions. 

All these scholars should be provided with tasteful school 
costumes, and should be entitled to two substantial, well-cooked 
and well- served meals every day. Also, such as have not suitable 
homes in which to live, would have comfortable and commodious 
sleeping accommodation, in connection with the school premises. 

The school buildings, in addition to the ordinary class-rooms 
and lecture halls, should have at least two large swimming baths, 
gymnasiums, reading rooms, and library, well stocked with periodical 
and standard literature, suited for young people ; play rooms, and 
extensive playgrounds, properly arranged for cricket, football, tennis, 
and other outdoor games. These rooms and grounds should be 
available, not only for the recreation time during school hours but 
should also be open to the scholars during the evenings. 

There should also be suitable workshops, where simple handi- 
crafts should be taught and exercised. 

It may be objected that seven years of age is too young for 
children to begin work, and, if the work were to be at all tiring or 
burdensome the objection would be valid, though there are many 
thousands of children of not more than four years of age, who have 
to work for many hours a day, in the slums of our great cities. 
After, however, having had their fingers trained in Kindergarten 
work, so far from it being at all a disagreeable or painful task, from 
one or two hours useful work every day would be a welcome relief 
to even the youngest. 

Children cannot be taught too soon that to be of use, /.<?., to serve 
their fellows in some way, should be the ambition of all. There 
are many light industries, such as toy making, artificial flower 
making, and others similar, which can be well done by children, 
while such arts as knitting, sewing, and pillow-lace making are 
best learned at this age. 

The mental course of instruction should include all that is 
taught in the bet elementary schools; and, in addition, foreign 
languages — French, German, Italian, and Spanish — should be 
familiarised to the children, the singing, writing, and reading 
lessons being by turns in each of these languages. Music, also, 
instrumental as well as vocal, should be taught to such as have 
any capacity for it ; and all should be taught to draw, and use the 
simple tools of carpentry. 



10 

Boys and girls who are fortunate enough to have little work- 
shops of their own, with plenty of good tools, not unfrequently, from 
pure love of it, manufacture elegant and beautiful pieces of work, 
and immensely enjoy the doing of it ; both pleasure, therefore, and 
economic gain can be obtained from the working time of the 
children. The handicrafts specified should be taught to both boys 
and girls. 

To know how to knit and sew, so as to be enabled to make 
and repair his own clothes, is always useful and may be, in some 
parts of the world, a most advantageous accomplishment for a man ; 
and to use simple joiners' tools so as to be able to mend or make 
small articles for the home, screw on a door knob, or ease a tight 
drawer is a very valuable accomplishment for a woman. 

The sleeping accommodation in connection with these Second 
Grade Schools will probably be needed in even larger proportion 
than in the Primary Schools. The good influence of a healthy 
Christian home cannot be over-estimated ; while, on the other 
hand, the pernicious effect of a drunken and immoral home would 
largely neutralise the good effects of the school teaching. Under 
our present laws, when an infectious disease breaks out in a house, 
the healthy and diseased are at once separated, by removal to a 
hospital of the person affected. It must be admitted that it is at 
least as important to separate helpless human beings from danger- 
ous moral- surroundings ; and this can only be done by almost 
total separation of children from criminal or vicious parents. By 
these means their evil influence would be almost destroyed, and, 
in little more than a generation, it would be entirely removed. 

Two infirmaries should be attached to each of our Second Grade 
Schools : one for the physically, and the other for the mentally 
infirm. By the former is meant the treatment of all kinds of bodily 
disorders, with, of course, a separate cottage for infectious diseases, 
and a sanatorium for the convalescent. The mental disorders to be 
treated are ill-temper, sullenness, stupidity, and unreasonable anger. 
These should be considered as illnesses, rather than moral faults ; 
and isolation from the other scholars should be. adopted, not as a 
punishment, but as a precaution against the spread of the evil. In 
the vast majority of cases these evils will yield to reasonable treat- 
ment, and it is only the absolutely incurable who should be 
permanently separated. It will be seen later how both physical and 
moral maladies may be nearly, if not quite, eradicated in a single 
generation. 

So far, with the exception of making it more comprehensive and 
complete, the system of education indicated does not differ much 
from what is well known, and in some places even adopted. At 
present, however, the school life of most children ceases at or before 
1 4 years of age, and much which has been taught is lost. So far, 
however, from a child's education being finished when he has passed 
the sixth or seventh standard, or left Rugby or Eton, it is scarcely 
begun ; and, as our object is to avoid wast« of time and effort or 
every kind, means must be adopted to continue and perfect the work 
which is now well begun. 



II 



CHAPTER III. 



Continuation Schools. 

The subject of this chapter is one of great importance, and, up to 
the present time, is so far from being well managed or understood 
that, though a Royal Commission was appointed (March ist, 1894) 
to examine and report upon the subject, no action has yet been 
taken by the Government. Nevertheless, there is grave cause of 
dissatisfaction with the chaos of our present system ; and it may be 
taken for granted that mere night schools, technical institutes, and 
County Council lectures, however good, are but very temporary 
expedients, adopted for want of not knowing what to do better. 

In connection with intermediate education, three points should 
be carefully kept in view : — 

First, the development of the general all-round faculties of 
both body and intellect. 

Second, the ascertaining of the real bent of the scholar's mind. 

Third, the offer of such opportunities of choice, and practice 
in the special line chosen, as to obviate the risk of making a mistake 
in career. Every man has a best in him, but very few can ever 
show themselves at their best. To give this opportunity to all 
should be the first object of our Intermediate schools. 

As the students in them will be from 15 to 18 years of age, it 
will be advisable to have separate buildings for the different sexes ; 
but it would be well to build them in pairs, contiguous to each other, 
each having not only its own recreation-ground, for its own students 
only, but with its door also opening into a common recreation- 
jround, which would be open to all. 

All students of both sexes will live on the premises during eight 
or nine months of the year ; those who have not suitable homes, of 
course, residing there or in some other schools during the vacations. 
The advantage of having resident pupils in any educational estab- 
lishment is too well known and too well established to need any 
arguments in its favour. These advantages have been enjoyed 
hitherto only by the children of the comparatively wealthy, whose 
parents can afford to send them to boarding schools, Rugby, Mill 
Hill, Oxford, Cambridge, Newnham, Holloway, or other similar 
establishments ; it will be shown that, without inflicting any greater 
burden on the community, these advantages may be shared by all. 

The school buildings should accommodate about 250 pupils ; 
and, say, ten to fifteen teachers, technical instructors, and principals. 
The buildings should be both substantial and beautiful, and placed 
in the most healthy and convenient positions. They should be 
provided not only with lecture halls, class rooms, swimming baths, 
and gymnasiums, but also with several reading rooms, recreation 
rooms, drawing rooms and parlours, dancing rooms, large elegantly- 
furnished reception rooms, art galleries, and museums of represen- 
tative fossils, minerals, and, physiological and anatomical specimen*. 



I* 

There should also be a laboratory, well fitted with instruments and 
appliances for physical experiment and research. 

In the public rooms and reception rooms, the whole of the 
students in each part of the college should, at certain hours of the 
day, be allowed and encouraged to freely mingle ; and on one or two 
evenings in the week visits might be exchanged between the 
students of the different schools in the same town. 

So far, no important departure from what is now being done 
has been indicated, but only a complete amplification and perfection 
of our present educational system ; what follows, is what is 
required to ensure a complete education in the real sense of the 
word, and at the same time a true solution of the technical training 
problem ; and beyond, and more important still, the attainment of 
the means for carrying on the work to logical completeness. 

In connection with each school there must be workshops 
sufficient in capacity for at least half the number of pupils ; in these 
workshops should be practised a number of trades. It is manifestly 
impossible to have every trade taught in every school, but in each 
there should be a type of as many as possible, such as some branch 
of wood industry : carpentry, joinery, cabinet making, or wood- 
carving. The same with iron : smith work, foundry, brass and iron 
turning, fitting, implement making, or engine-building. Textile 
manufactures: spinning, weaving, and cloth- making Materials for 
the building trade : brick and terra-cotta making, stone-masonry 
and carving. Pottery : china and earthenware. While for girls, 
dressmaking, millinery, cooking, fancy shoemaking, spinning, 
weaving, dyeing, lithography, chemistry, photography, fancy 
industries such as fan-making and painting, art pottery, watch- 
making, jewellery, scientific instrument making, and many other 
light and useful industries in which delicacy and skill are required, 
more than strength. 

Unlike the system pursued in our present industrial schools and 
technical institutes, all the work produced should be of economic 
use, and the students should be taught their trades just as in the 
best-regulated commercial factories ; the object to be sought being 
not, as now, the training merely of the faculties, but the production, 
in the best and most perfect manner, of beautiful and useful 
things. 

In a town or district of, say, 40,000 inhabitants there would be 
required twelve such schools; and among the twelve every useful 
subject would be taught and practised ; while the simple trades, 
such as shoemaking, tailoring, dressmaking, and millinery, would be 
taught in all. Each would also have a school of Scientific Cookery, 
in which all the school meals would be prepared ; a laundry, with 
best labour-saving appliances, where all the school washing would 
be done ; and attached to each, either contiguous or within easy 
distance, a large garden, where all the vegetables and a large pro- 
portion of the fruit would be raised. 

The work of all kinds, both in and outdoors, would be done by 
the students ; and instead of a staff of, say, twenty servants in each 
school, twenty or more of the students would take it in turn to 



13 

perform the various duties, so that one week in each term would be 
spent by each in such employment. If imbued with the spirit of 
the Great Master, who came " not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister," all would be not only satisfied, but glad to earn honour- 
able distinction in the way He taught when He said, " Whosoever 
will be great among you, shall be your minister ; and whosoever of 
you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." 

There is really no drudgery in performing even disagreeable 
tasks, for the sake of our fellows, when it implies no inferiority of 
position. The dissection of a human body in the interests of 
Science and Humanity, is in itself a more loathsome and repulsive 
occupation than the cutting up of a pig, for the purposes of food ; 
yet now, the former is considered honourable, and the latter menial ; 
while in point of fact, if the object of either be selfish gain, the 
occupation is mean ; and if to serve in the best way the interests of 
others, it is praiseworthy and honourable. * 

By the adoption of the many well-known mechanical and 
scientific appliances, dirty and disagreeable labour can be reduced 
to a very small amount. Hydraulic lifts, steam heating of buildings, 
gas and electric cooking appliances, electric motors for working all 
kinds of labour-saving appliances, should be available for regular 
use ; though each student should be taught to be independent of 
all, in case of emergency. In the same way, all the best labour- 
saving appliances would be used to economise effort in all agricul- 
tural, mechanic 1 , and scientific work. 

Four hours in each working day would be spent by each student 
in the workshop, half the number of students using them in the 
morning, and the other half in the afternoon. In this way, the 
technical instructors on the one hand, and the mental instructors on 
the other, would be fully employed ; and both class rooms and 
laboratories would be fully utilised. 

In three months, or in some cases three days, after his entry into 
a workshop, a boy or girl can begin to produce useful remunerative 
works. The author states what a lifelong experience in industrial 
production has taught, that, without question, these students of from 
15 to 18 years of age can, with the best appliances at their disposal, 
in four hours a day, earn enough to equal the cost of their food, 
clothing, lodgment, training, and education. 

The ordinary school course of instruction would include all 
subjects taught in high-class schools, such as ancient and modern 
history and languages, geology, chemistry, metallurgy, anatomy, 
physiology, astronomy, mathematics, physics, and electricity ; 
music, solo and part singing, the playing of all kinds of musical 
instruments, drawing, painting in oil and water colours; and, in 

* " With such a system of government, pure, watchful, and just, you may 
approach your great problem of national education, or in other words national 
employment, for all education begins in work. What we think, or what we 
know, or what we believe, is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of 
consequence is what we do : and for man, woman or child, the first point of 
education is to make them do their best." — Roskin. 



x 4 

addition to gymnastics, dancing, drilling, fencing, shooting, and 
horse riding should be taught. 

As in the Second Grade Schools, not all the subjects would be 
taken by each pupil, but each would have the opportunity of 
choosing, and trying what he or she could do. 

After two years, i.e., by the time each pupil had reached sixteen 
or seventeen years of age, it would be necessary to definitely choose 
a career in life. Once chosen, with the consent of parents and 
principals of the school, the studies and work of the student would 
be specialised with a view to his career ; and it might be necessary 
to change the school for another, where the special subject was 
more perfectly taught and practised. 

It may be objected that a large proportion of the students would 
choose what are considered easy and pleasant careers, and then 
there would be certain to be, as now, a glut of barristers, clergy- 
men, doctors, and politicians ; while trades, business, and agriculture 
would be neglected. This objection is met in the following manner. 
All the students,- without exception, would be required to devote 
four hours a day to some useful wealth-producing occupation, their 
task being chosen for them according to their ability, inclination, the 
possibilities of the situation, and above all, the needs of the community. 
The doing of this task would discharge the duty of the person to 
the community, and the remaining ten to twelve hours of the work- 
ing day could then be devoted to the study and practice of any 
trade, calling, art, or science. Nor would the student, in his choice, 
be limited to one subject, but would have the opportunity of learn- 
ing all that he could about as many things as he cared to study. 

One very great advantage of the above proposition will be 
obvious to all. The great difficulty now almost invariably 
experienced by parents, viz., that of first choosing a career for their 
children, and then getting for them an opportunity for learning and 
practising it, would be entirely removed. What shall we do with 
our boys ? and what shall we do with our girls ? are questions which 
have been asked in public and private a million times and more,, 
and hitherto no satisfactory reply has been given. Under the 
present system, heavy premiums have to be paid, and great expenses 
incurred, to secure admission, not only in the professions, but also 
into many skilled trades; premiums which the majority are totally 
unable to pay. Young men and women have to be put, not to the 
occupation for which they are best fitted, but to those which are 
open to them ; while large numbers are left out altogether, thus 
swelling the ranks of the unemployed, to the great loss and detriment 
of the country. 

To find a place for all, and to fit every one into his or her place, 
so that all may employ their powers to the best advantage, is an. 
aim which must commend itself to all who love their country and 
desire its prosperity. 

That this scheme of education, as foreshadowed, would be an 
unprecedented interference with private business, goes without 
saving ; but that it would necessarily injure any useful enterprise, 



*5 

does not follow. That it would stop the manufacture of millionaires 
is not only possible, but certain ; and equally is it certain that, by 
abstracting so large a number of workers from the open market, it 
would effectually prevent the sweating and oppression of the 
remainder, a consummation devoutly to be wished. 

In these Technical, or Third-Grade Schools, while ample 
opportunity would be given, for the acquiring of all kinds of useful 
knowledge, yet, at the same time, ample provision must be made for 
recreation. At suitable times during each day or evening, all kinds 
of outdoor and indoor games should be played ; and occasionally, 
more or less frequently as the principals may determine, the male 
and female students would meet for tennis, cricket, badminton, and 
such like outdoor games, botanical and geological excursions and 
riding lessons. Also, at school concerts, lectures, receptions, con- 
versaziones and balls, there should be the same intermingling of the 
■sexes, of course under proper supervision. 

All the elegances and refinements of the most perfect homes 
should be used and encouraged ; the object to be attained being 
not only to produce strong, wise, and useful members of society ; 
but also men and women of the most beautiful form, of the highest 
honour, and most perfect manners. 



CHAPTER IV. 



University Education. 

Between the ages ol 19 and 21, inclusive, we shall have nearly 
2,000,000 students for whom accommodation will be required, and, 
by the time the scheme had been in operation sixteen years, some 
200 Universities, each with from twelve to fifteen affiliated Colleges, 
with about 200 scholars in each. 

The number of Universities, with the affiliated Colleges, would 
have to be increased year by year, till it reached the total number 
required, which would be about 600. Our older Universities at 
present are devoted mainly to classics, mathematics, and theology. 
These may be retained ; but, in addition, we require Universities 
specially devoted to agriculture, architecture, navigation, metallurgy 
and mining, mechanics and physical science, law, medicine, art and 
music. 

These should be placed in all parts of the country, so as to be 
most convenient not only for the special branches of knowledge 
taught there, but also to be in the midst of the people. Thus, the 
agricultural Universities would be placed where immense tracts of 
land were available ; while those devoted to navigation and ship 
building would be near the great sea-ports. Each would have, in 



10 

the Colleges affiliated with it, all the means and appliances for 
studying and practising the branch of knowledge to which it was 
devoted. For instance, in connection with the Physical Science 
University, there would be Colleges specially devoted to astronomy, 
microscopic research, electricity, chemistry, sound, light, and heat, 
and other similar branches of science ; and the colleges attached to 
the other Universities would teach similar subdivisions of their special 
branches of study, and each would be furnished with all the apparatus 
and appliances needed. 

So far as the author has been able to learn from investigating 
the system of Technical Training on the Continent and in America, 
there has been (with the exception of a few technical schools in 
Sweden) no serious attempt made to make the work of the schools 
pay for the expense of the same. And, so far as mere teaching in 
schools is concerned, this is right ; as it is no more reasonable to 
expect a lesson in smith work or carving to be immediately 
remunerative than for a lesson in history or mathematics. Further, 
in no country is there yet a system so complete as to include all the 
youth of the nation up to 21 years of age, though many of the 
most advanced thinkers of different countries, including our Locke 
and the French Rousseau, have seen the need of such ; thus the school 
life of most students is far too short for it to be made economically 
profitable. Let the school life be extended from its present average 
of seven years to 17, and the opportunity is at once given, not only 
to acquire knowledge of some useful art or craft, but also to practise 
it with skill or profit. For this to be done, there must be in con- 
nection with each College, as with the Elementary and Intermediate 
Schools, a number of workshops in which some useful trade is 
carried on, and in which every student shall work six hours of 
every working day. 

All the service, such as cooking, cleaning, &c, would, of course, 
be performed by the students in rotation. 

The number of each kind of university that would be established 
would depend entirely upon the needs of the country. For Law 
and Theology, probably one only of each would be needed, and 
certainly not more than one in each part of the United Kingdom 
(the reason for this will be seen later on) ; while those for Mechanics 
and Agriculture would be required in every part of the country. In 
connection with the Agricultural University, colleges would give 
special attention to the manufacture and testing of natural and 
artificial manures, and other cognate subjects, such as stock breed- 
ing, farming, and veterinary surgery. In connection with each 
there would be large tracts of land upon which enough corn and 
fruit could be grown, and cattle and sheep reared, to supply the 
needs of all engaged in them ; and also to supply the inmates of 
those universities who were devoting themselves to other useful 
pursuits. In this way, the twenty million acres of land now out of 
cultivation would be utilised, in addition to that now growing food. 

At present, out of a total area of land in the United Kingdom 
(exclusive of tidal water) of 77,642,099 acres, in 1893 there were 



*7 

under cultivation but 47,977,903. So that it is no exaggeration to 
say that, after allowing for roads, cities, and parks, we have still 
at our disposal another twenty million acres of land. Owing to 
the price of wheat being so low that it cannot be grown at a 
satisfactory profit," it is gradually going out of cultivation, since 
1887 the amount produced having fallen from 76,244,940 bushels, 
to 60,775,245 bushels. Yet no sane person would deny that a 
bushel of wheat will make as many loaves of bread, and feed as 
many persons as ever it did. As, therefore, we require wheat for 
use, and not for profit, our object must be to provide all we 
require, so long as we have the land upon which to grow it, and the 
labour to till it ; granted of course that the land and labour could 
not be put to better use for the community, not profit for the 
individual. 

Now as we have both land and labour not used in any way, to 
set both to produce food must be putting them to a better use than 
now. 

Prince Krapotkin (no mean authority), writing in the Nineteenth 
Century, says, " If the soil of the United Kingdom were cultivated 
only as it was 30 years ago, 24,000,000 people, instead of 17,000,000 
could live on home-grown food ; if the 1,590,000 acres on which 
wheat was grown 30 years ago — only these and no more, were 
cultivated as the fields are cultivated now under the allotment 
system, which gives on the average 40 bushels to the acre, the 
United Kingdom would grow food for 27,000,000 inhabitants. If 
the now cultivated area were cultivated as the soil is cultivated on 
the average in Belgium, the United Kingdom would have food for- 
37,000,000 inhabitants ; and finally, if the population in this country 
came to be doubled, all that would be required for producing the 
food for 70,000,000 inhabitants would be to cultivate the soil as it 
is cultivated in the best farms of this country, in Lombardy, and in 
Flanders, and to cultivate the meadows, which at present lie almost 
unproductive around the big cities, in the same way as the 
neighbourhoods of Paris are cultivated by the Paris Maraichers. All 
these are not fancy dreams, but mere realities. Nothing but modest 
conclusions from what we see round about us without any illusion 
as to the agriculture of the future." 

The above .digression or interpolation seemed to the author 
necessary to show the extent of our resources and the reasonableness 
of utilising them. That which is true about agriculture would be- 
true also about all our manufactures and industries. There is no 
limit to the amount of wealth which can be produced, given the 
materials and intelligent and organised labour.* 

It should not be made a stipulation that the workshops attached 
to a particular college should be those in which the whole of the- 
students worked, but only that each one worked at some useful 

• " I have tested this by comparative results, and find that if all the land in 
this kingdom equal to my own, about 50 million acres, produced as much per 
acre as mine does, our agricultural produce would be increased by the enormous, 
amount of £421,000,000 annually." — Mechi. 



i8 

employment for a certain time, say, six hours each day. A student 
might be doing remunerative work as a brass turner or carpenter, 
while he was studying to become an astronomer or a lawyer ; while 
lady students might be milliners or watchmakers for six hours a 
day, and be learning music, painting, or mathematics during the 
hours of study. 

The mental study would be entirely optional, and would be 
followed only by those who had a decided love for it. Those who 
cared not to pursue their mental culture further would have the 
opportunity of spending more time in the workshops, or on the 
farms ; and if they chose to waste their time, as many students 
now do at Oxford and Cambridge, no compulsion would be used to 
prevent it, though the higher motives cultivated would lead largely 
to prevent such foolish waste. The only compulsion exercised 
would be that of securing the workshop service, and three hours 
each week for military and ambulance drill.* 

So far from these Universities with their Colleges being mere 
Workshops and factories, the highest and best intellects in the world 
should be at their head, for the mental training and examination of 
the students ; and besides, opportunity would be given to all to 
perfect themselves in purely ornamental accomplishments. More 
frequent re-unions of both sexes would be held, and a large and 
elegant reception room in each College should be open one night in 
each week for interchange of visits between members of the various 
Colleges, both male and female. 

All labouring equally with their hands, and all contributing 
according to their several abilities to the common wealth, all would 
stand upon the same social level. From their earliest years there 
would be fostered in each those feelings of independence, self- 
reliance, helpfulness, and respect for others which go to form tha 
foundation of the highest characters, and, so far from looking upon 
a life of luxurious ease as desirable, all would be taught to regard the 
diligent discharge of duty as the highest honour, and to esteem 
him the noblest character who best served his fellows. 

* Both females, as well as males, would be thus drilled and trained in the 
use of arms. The training would be compulsory on all, but military service 
would remain optional. Not only would the nation as a whole be thus made 
stronger, but each individual in it would be more free and independent. Perfect 
freedom and justice can only be secured and maintained for all, when all, with- 
out distinction of class or sex, are equally powerful for offence or defence. All 
people are exposed to constant risk of an invasion of their liberties, when a 
■ection only of the people is armed, and under the absolute control of another 
still smaller section ; hence the inferior legal position of women in most countries, 
and the tyranny and burden of the military classes in all countries maintaining 
standing armies. 



19 
CHAPTER V. 



State Industries. 

With the maintenance, education, and training of all up to the 
age of 21, the State may well be considered to have discharged its 
obligation to the children of our land. It is now for these trained 
men and women to discharge their obligations to the State ; and, in 
order to do this, their first duty is to pay back in service the cost of 
the services which have been rendered to them. This can easily be 
done by each individual remaining in the public service for at least 
four years, and employing himself usefully for, say, eight hours each 
day in the production of some article needed by the nation. Those 
who still had the control of great sources or stores of private wealth 
might, instead of remaining at work, refund, out of such stores, the 
cost of the education they had received. 

It may as well be stated here that only those who really produce 
wealth will be credited with the value of wealth. Those who choose 
rather to produce opinions or theories, like lecturers, poets, preachers, 
and lawyers ; and those who are engaged in social control, such as 
Town Councillors, Members of Parliament and of the Government, 
Magistrates, Judges, Policemen, Soldiers, and the Officers of the 
Army and Navy, would receive no pay as such.* The poet,, 
preacher, or statesman who had a real duty to discharge or a 
message to deliver for the good of humanity would deliver it 
because of the divine impulse within him, as he always has in the 
past. There has never been any lack of honourable, useful men to 
act as Magistrates, Councillors, Members of Parliament, and Public 
Arbitrators when needed ; and the work of such will compare 
favourably with that done by paid advocates and salaried officials. 
When arduous duties are to be discharged, the best men are willing 
to discharge them ; but when merely social position and money are 
to be gained, the mean and worthless are always to the front. 

Under this scheme, as shown in preceding chapters, we shall now 
have got not only all the children of our land fed, clothed, housed, 
trained and educated in the most perfect manner, but we shall have 
provided a congenial and remunerative occupation for all the adult 
population of the land of 25 years of age and under, with the 
certainty of at least a useful and honourable career for life for all 
those who choose to remain in the State establishments. This has 
been done with the very slightest interference with individual 
liberty ; the only compulsion exercised has been to insist upon four 
years' service, or a money contribution equal in value, from all 
those who have received the State education. This is a very slight 
interference with individual liberty in comparison with the com- 
pulsory military service enforced in most Continental countries,. 

* All these •would, of course, receive ample remuneration for the productive 
services they rendered to the community, for the doing of which they would 
have ample opportunity. 



and inevitable within a few years in our own, if the growth of 
militarism be not checked. 

This four years' service at congenial employment under the 
best possible conditions is certainly not a high price to pay for the 
immense advantages obtained. Not only shall we have abolished 
nearly the whole of our pauperism and destitution, but we shall 
have made crime almost impossible, by removing nearly all motive 
for its commission. Though not taking such a low view of the 
poor as is implied in the well-known lines of the late Laureate, 
yet there is some truth in the statement that 

" It isn't them as has'money as breaks into houses and steals, 
Them as has coats to their backs and takes their reg'lar meals ; 
Noa, but it's them as never knows where a meal's to be 'ad. 
Take my word for it, Sammy, the poor in a lump is bad." 

But more will have been gained ; all foolish class distinctions 
will have been abolished, and the men and women we have trained 
with all the best faculties of the mind and body fully developed, 
will be valued only for their goodness, beauty, strength, and useful- 
ness. All the youth of our land will have enjoyed the advantages 
now monopolised by a very few ; and our country will have entered 
upon an era of happiness and prosperity such as has existed 
hitherto only in the dreams of the philosopher and poet. And, 
doubtless many will say, " will never exist elsewhere, for plausible, 
and beautiful, as it may seem, it is utterly impracticable, on account 
of the immense cost." Let us look at this objection. That the 
cost would be enormous, goes without saying ; but if after exami- 
nation it is found that it can be defrayed without imposing any 
additional burden upon the community, the objection will cease 
to exist. 



CHAPTER VI. 



The Cost. 

From the 1894-5 Education Report, we learn that there were 
then on the rolls of our Public Elementary Schools over 4,800,000 
children of from four to fourteen years of age, and a total of 97,933 
teachers and assistants. 

Attending private schools, or not attending school at all, there 
would be at least 3,200,000 of about the same age, or a total of 
8,000,000. 

From fifteen to twenty-one, there would be approximately 
5,000,000 youths of both sexes, and from that age to twenty-five, 
there would be about 2,800,000. 

We should then have in our Primary Schools 2,700,000 between 
tour and seven years of age ; in our Second Grade Schools 5,500,000 
from eight to fourteen years of age ; in the Intermediate or Third 
Grade Schools 2,800,000 youths of both sexes from fifteen to 



SI 

eighteen years of age ; and in the State Colleges or Universities 
2,000,000 of from 19 to 21 years of age, a large proportion of whom 
would remain in the State workshops attached to the Universities 
until they were 25 years old ; the reason of this will be seen later. 

For their accommodation there would be required 27,000 Primary 
Schools of 100 scholars each ; 27,500 Second Grade Schools of 
about 200 scholars each; 14,000 Intermediate or Third Grade 
Schools of about 200 scholars each ; 10,000 Colleges of about 200 
scholars each, and about 10,000 additional factories and farms of 
200 workers each. 

In the development of this scheme the beginning would of 
course be made with Elementary Schools, and the others would 
only be provided as the children grew and needed them ; a period 
of 20 years would elapse between the adoption of this scheme and 
its completion. The capital outlay each year would only be one- 
twentieth of the whole sum required for building, and this would 
be much further reduced by the use and adoption of many of the 
existing school premises, now owned by the State through the 
various School Boards and Committees.* A sum, however, of not 
less than ^"20,000,000 per annum would be required for the first 
25 years on capital account, and afterwards about ^"10,000,000 per 
annum for building and repairs. Though this is a large sum, yet it 
must be remembered that £10,000,000 is approximately the present 
cost of our paupers, the total poor rates for England and Wales in 
1897 was ^ 2 3>8o4,205 ; but a little over half is spent in other ways. 
Our criminals cost us about another ^"10,000,000. The total loans 
for School Boards in 1897 was on ^y ;£ I >674,852, i.e., for building 
purposes. 

This amount of ^20,000,000, together with that required to 
carry on the scheme for the first 15 years, would have to be 
provided by loans or taxation ; after which time the money begins to 
be repaid, if borrowed ; or, if raised by taxation, the tax would be 
remitted, and the national education would become a source of 
national wealth, instead of a burden. If this can be shown to be 
correct, when the system is in full operation, a nation which wastes 
£200,000,000 per annum in useless and pernicious luxury, and 
uselessly accumulates over another £100,000,000, will have no 
difficulty in finding the necessary funds to put the system in 
complete operation. 

Let us see, then, what will be the cost per annum, besides the 
£20,000,000 for building and repairs. It must be remembered 
that nothing in any way approaching the sums following will be 
required in cash or money ; the food, clothing, tools, implements, 
service, and teaching staff being largely self-produced. But, for 
clearness of illustration, it is best to assume that all costs are 
measured in money value, and that all services rendered are repaid 
in the same. 

* There were 19,500 schools under State inspection in 1892-93, very many of 
which could be utilised as Primary Schools. 



The approximate cost would be as follows : — 

For food, clothing, and education of 2,700,000 
children, between the ages of four and 
seven, at five shillings per week for fifty 
weeks, would be ... ... ... ... £ 33,750,000 

For food, clothing, education, and partial 
lodgment of 5,500,000 scholars from eight 
to fourteen years of age, at eight shillings 
per week for fifty weeks, would be ... 110,000,000 

For food, clothing, education, and lodgment 
of 2,800,000 scholars of from fifteen to 
eighteen years of age, at fifteen shillings 
per week for fifty weeks, would be ... 105,000,000 

For food, clothing, technical training and 
lodgment of 2,000,000 students of from 
nineteen to twenty-one years of age 
inclusive, at the rate of ^"50 each per 
annum ... ... ... ... ... 100,000,000 

For food, clothing, and lodgment of 

2,000,000 ex-students at ^"50 per annum 100,000,000 

Building repairs ... ... ... ... 10,000,000 



Or a total nett cost to the nation of ... ^458,750,000 

While this sum may seem, at first sight, enormous, it must not 
be forgotten that, including teachers, it deals with about 17,000,000 
persons, i.e., nearly half the population, and that the food, clothing, 
rducation and training must now cost an immense sum, probably 
much more than here stated, as it is carried on most wastefully. 

Further, this amount for dealing with half the population is but 
one-third of the total income of the nation, which, by the best 
aathorities, has been placed at ^1,400,000,000. 

Revenue. 

The required sum would be raised as follows : — 

By produce of labour of 5,500,000 scholars 
in the Second Grade Schools at three 
shillings per week, for forty weeks ... £ 33,000,000 

By produce of labour of 2,800,000 children 
in the Third Grade Schools at six shillings 
per week, for forty weeks 33,600,000 

By produce of labour of 2,000,000 students 
working for six hours a day for forty weeks 
in the year, at thirty shillings per week ... 120,000,000 

By produce of labour of 2,000,000 ex-students 
working eight hours a day during forty-five 
weeks in the year, at £5 per week* less 
£1 for personal use ... ... ... ... 360,000,000 

• The nett earnings (not salary) of each useful product? is now Over £rtO 
fex year. 



«3 

By cash payments of 100,000 students who 
prefer to pay for their education in cash, 
rather than in service — 100,000 at ^"180 
each ... ... ... ... ... ... 18,000,000 



Total ... ... ... ^564, 600,000 

Less cost of ... ... ... ... 458,750,000 

Surplus per annum for State management 

and incidental expenses ^"105,850,000 

By the money paid or the labour performed in the State 
Industrial Department after completion of education, each student 
would complete the discharge of the debt incurred during the 
17 years' training ; and would enter life's work with a sense of 
independence and power which would be of incalculable value to 
himself and the nation. 

Doubt might be felt by some that the amount indicated, as 
earned by Students, would be realised. Careful investigation into 
the question of production by skilled labour would show that so far 
from the amount having been exaggerated, it has been understated. 

The experience of a life-time spent in industrial operations 
justifies the writer in stating that the organisation and working of 
the above scheme for meeting the cost of a national system oi 
education is not only possible, but quite practicable; a statement, 
he ventures to believe, that will be questioned by none who have 
the knowledge and experience requisite to form a correct judgment. 

It must be remembered that, as stated on page 22, the annual 
income of the United Kingdom. is now ^1,400,000,000, and this, 
spite of the fact that very many members of the population are 
non-producers of wealth ; were all employed, the increase of 
wealth would be greater in proportion to the greater number of 
wealth producers.* 

Again, owing to trade-competition, travelling, advertising, and 
other such like expenses, a very large proportion of our labour is 
wasted. 

It has been stated on very high authority, and the writer's own 
experience tends to confirm it, that in many branches of manufac- 
ture of expensive goods, it costs quite, as much to sell them as to 
make them; and with many small industries, very much more. 

The introduction of labour-saving machinery into every depart- 
ment, and the proper organisation of all industries, can increase the 
production of wealth enormously; an increased production of 200 
or 300 per cent, is very frequently obtained by this means.t It is 

• From the census returns (1891) we find that out of a total population in 
the United Kingdom of 37.733,92a, no fewer than 20,917,219 are without any 
occupation, and many of the others are wastefully or uselessly employed. 

t Since the first edition of this work was published, the author has seen 
many new machines introduced which turn out the work for which they are 
designed of a higher quality than was possible a few years ago, with at least 
five times greater rapidity. 



no exaggeration to state that, on an average, the production of all 
might at least be doubled, if it was carried on for use only ; that is, 
if in each branch of manufacture the expenses incidental to com- 
petition were eliminated, and each establishment could devote itself 
to producing as much as possible of its own goods, in the best and 
most economical manner. 

This is only possible when all production is under the control 01 
one management. A simple illustration of this is our Post Office, 
which under proper organisation, can carry a letter hundreds of 
miles for a penny. If, instead of one, we had a hundred competing 
letter-carrying companies, each with its own carriers, sets of offices 
in every district, and each with its staff of servants covering the 
same ground, the work and cost would be enormously increased, 
and the public would be less perfectly served. 

The cost of making a watch by hand may be not less than 50s. ; 
and if a thousand separate tradesmen thus make them, we have a 
thousand watches made at a cost of ^2,500 in labour. But, if with 
proper tools and the suitable organisation of the thousand men, a 
watch can be made for 5s. in labour, then these same men would in 
the same time produce ten thousand watches instead of one 
thousand. Private enterprise has gone a long way in this direction ; 
but great as is the advance already, more and still greater is possible 
with a State organisation such as would exist under the scheme as 
above described. 

Having now got all the population educated and trained, up to 
twenty-five years of age, what would then take place would naturally 
be as follows. 

Those who choose to follow a private, independent career, 
would do so. Some would travel, others live upon their tenants, 
as now, others would go into private trades and professions for 
which they would be well fitted. But by far the greater number 
would remain, as all would have the privilege of doing, in the 
State farms, factories, and Art and Science workshops. If they 
still occupied their rooms, like fellows in a college do, they would 
be debited with the cost of their living, say ^"50 a year ; and say 
another £"50 for travelling and holiday expenses. If they worked 
for their eight hours a day, they would be credited with their 
earnings, say ^250 a year, thus leaving a net ^150 a year to their 
credit. • 

Even if they married, there would be nothing to prevent the 
wife still giving her services to the S^ate for a great part of her time, 
say one-half that of a man ; thus a married couple would have a 
net saving of ^"225 a year, they having no expense in bringing up a 
family. 

Granted, then, that each single person gave thirty years' service 
to the State ; at the end of that time he would have standing to his 
credit ^4,500 — enough to give him an annual income of £225 for 
life, if he lived for another twenty years. Of course, he could spend 
more in his youth, and less in his age, if he thought good ; but, at 
least, each person would have the possibility of securing a certain 



95 

and ample provision for his old age. If he never needed it, there 
would be so much more to divide amongst those who did need. 

With these advantages, few persons would take the risk of 
private trading ; and,*the greater the number in the State establish- 
ments, the greater the advantage resulting from them to all. 

Having now fully described what needs doing and " How it can 
be done," let us examine how far this scheme complies with the 
conditions laid down in the first chapter. 



CHAPTER VII. 



How it Fulfils the Conditions. 

First. It is possible. 

Now that so much has been done in the direction indicated, and 
with the best results, it would be absurd to say that a further 
extension of our education scheme is not possible ; as the extension 
would merely give to all the advantages now monopolised by a few. 

All that is required is the passing of a Bill by Parliament, em- 
powering the setting up of the First Grade Schools as described, and 
the provision of the necessary funds. Whether these funds needed 
for the first few years should be obtained by a loan or by a tax on 
mining royalties, by the appropriation of such part of the revenue 
of the Established Church as is by deed devoted to Education, or 
by a further increase of the Death Duties, it is the duty of our 
Statesmen to say ; but a country whose inhabitants have a surplus 
income of over a hundred millions a year, can have no real diffi- 
culty in finding, for such a purpose, the few extra millions required 
for the first few years. 

Second. It makes no violent and sudden change. 

New schools are being constantly built now, and they are 
gradually becoming better. We should merely build so many more, 
and each so much better than formerly. With the adult population 
there is no interference ; the change in training takes place with 
the young, most of whom, and in a short time the whole of whom, 
will have known no other condition of life, and they will thus grow 
naturally into the new order. 

Third. While the application of the scheme is gradual, the 
effect will be immediate and evident. 

There is no greater anxiety in the heart of the average man, 
than that for the future of his children. This anxiety would at 
once be removed. There is no greater torture than that of seeing 
his children starve for lack of food. That torture would cease, 
once the First Grade Schools were opened. The relief from the 



26 

burden of a family, on the one hand, the freedom to go smd se6k 
work in any part of the country, in the second place, and the 
immensely increased demand for labour to be employed in the 
building and furnishing of all the new schools, would make an 
" immediate " and " evident change for the better in the condition 
of all useful persons in the land. 

Fourth. It would be permanent. 

The advance made through many ages, in the enfranchisement 
and education of the masses, has never gone back. It is those 
nations which have tried to keep the advantages of wealth and 
education within the ranks of a small privileged order, which have 
sunk into decay. All schemes of mere relief of poverty and distress, 
whether Mansion House funds, Poor Law relief, or attempts such 
as General Booth's and many others, to establish adult colonies of 
workers, have been attended with but little real success, and have 
indeed often produced much real evil. The habits of a lifetime 
cannot easily be changed, nor can idlers, loafers, and other incom- 
petents, be changed, to any great extent, into useful honourable 
citizens. 

If we would have our work permanent, we must begin with the 
young ; if we would have a nation of adults, strong and industrious, 
honourable and useful, intelligent, brave and pure, they must, from 
their infancy, be trained in such virtues. The words of Solomon 
are still true : " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
he is old, he will not depart from it." 

Fifth. It is just and equitable in its action, and equal in its 
application. 

It is just, because it secures to every producer the full value of 
his labour, and secures to each the absolute use of what he has 
produced. 

It is equitable, because it lays violent hands upon no private 
property or interest, and gives no advantage to any one person or 
class over another. 

It is equal in its application, because whatever advantages are 
to be obtained by any, are offered and are open equally to all. 

Last. This scheme is elastic, and admits of indefinite expansion 
and perfection. 

It would take over twenty years to put into complete operation 
as described ; and each year, the added experience gained would 
enable such modifications or enlargements of it as were shown to- 
be necessary. 



27 

CONCLUSION. 



Within the limits of a small pamphlet it is not possible to demon- 
strate fully all the advantages to a country resulting from the 
adoption of such a scheme of education as the foregoing. These are 
fully dealt with in the book from which the scheme is taken, and to 
which the reader is referred. 

Careful consideration will, however, show that from the very 
beginning, i.e., from the establishment of the First Grade Schools, a 
very great improvement will have been made in the condition of the 
people, a heavy burden will have been lifted from their shoulders 
and lifted by themselves. 

There is no wealth which is not a free gift of God, like land, 
water, sunshine, and the power of growth, or which has not become 
wealth by the application of labour to God's gifts. 

The producers of wealth have up to the present used their labour 
principally for the enrichment of others. For rich men they have 
built palaces and pleasure yachts, provided splendid apparel and 
furniture, and in a thousand ways ministered to their pleasure and 
ostentation, and even provided the funds for their charities. As 
soon as the wealth they produce begins to be spent in providing 
homes, food and clothing for their own children, and training them 
in the highest manner for their life's duties, it is put to a just and 
righteous use. 

It is the workers in wood, in stone, and in minerals, who will 
have to build the schools and factories. It is those who labour 
on the land and in the factories who will have to provide the food 
and clothing for all, and it is but right that the children of these 
workers should have at least an equal right with others to enjoy the 
benefits of the national maintenance and training, for it is these 
who will grow up to be the nation's wealth-producers in their turn. 
Working under happier conditions, with healthier bodies, better 
trained intellects, and with superior tools and appliances, they will 
be able to produce for themselves and for those who are too young, 
too old, or too feeble to work, wealth in such profusion as is now 
almost inconceivable. 

The writer is familiar with not a few well -managed factories 
where a youth of 18 can superintend the working of five or six 
self-acting machines worked by electric or other power, each turning 
out beautifully-finished goods at a rate which but a short time ago 
would have required the handwork of some twenty skilled work- 
men ; thus, what a generation ago was done in the spinning and 
weaving industries is now capable of accomplishment for the 
workers in wood and metal. 

With a national organisation of labour these immense advan- 
tages, instead of being monopolised by a few individuals, would be 
utilised by all. 

A millionaire is a menace to society ; to make a millionaire still 
richer is to intensify an evil and perpetuate a nuisance. To make a 



28 

million useful workers wealthy and contented, is to increase the 
stability of a State and add to the happiness and brightness of the 
world. 

This latter would be possible with State organisation of 
our industries. This would result in at least doubling the production 
of wealth, the whole of which would be at the disposal of the 
workers, while hours of labour could be reduced to eight per day. 

Once fairly started with the schools, workshops and farms, all 
taxes or contributions in money to the educational scheme would be 
unnecessary ; every article used, whether tools, furniture, or cloth- 
ing, would be produced in one or other of the school factories, and 
the distribution of these establishments would not be haphazard as 
now, but each would be placed in that part of the country most 
suitable to it by nearness to the raw material and facility for its 
manufacture. 

The food also for all the students, teachers and workers would 
be grown and prepared by themselves, with the exception of such 
articles as tea, coffee, dried fruits, spices, &c, abundance of which 
could be imported in exchange for the large surplus they would have 
of manufactured goods. 

The above brief outline will show how many other problems 
would be solved by thus dealing with that of education. 

Pauperism would be abolished, and the deserving unemployed 
would cease out of the land, for there would be work and ample 
reward for all workers. 

Orphanages, industrial schools, and reformatories would be no 
longer needed. 

The housing of the people would be accomplished. The con- 
gestion of the population in our large cities would be arrested, and 
with the departure of the dwellers back to the land, our cities would 
be cleared of slum and insanitary areas and made clean, bright and 
beautiful. 

The natural wealth of the country would be developed and used 
at home instead of being invested abroad. 

The land would come back into cultivation, and we should no 
longer live in peril of famine in case of war. 

The shameful disfigurement of our country by ugly buildings, 
hideous advertisements, and shabby dwellings for the poor, would 
be arrested, places of historic interest and real beauty would be 
saved from being desecrated and exploited by the company pro- 
moter. 

We should as a nation become immensely stronger, either for 
attack or defence. Instead of a small army of hired soldiers, we 
should have an armed and trained nation, invincible to repel outside 
attack, and mighty to demand and retain all the rights and privileges 
of manhood and citizenship. 

The reckless treatment of workers and unsafe conditions of 
employment, which now is responsible for over 5,000 deaths and 
over 60,000 accidents per annum, would no longer exist. All our 



.*9 

workshops would be made healthy, and all processes would (as they 
certainly can) be carried out in a safe and sanitary manner. 

And, lastly, we should be able to realise the long-cherished 
dream of the worker for an old age pension. This would not only 
be possible, but the production of wealth would be so ample that, 
as shown in the preceding pages, the evening of a man's life, that is, 
his time of rest from labour, instead of being a lifelong dread, would 
be looked forward to with pleasant anticipation like the entering into 
possession of his estate. There is no good thing or harmless luxury 
which would not be within the reach of these aged servants of the 
State. The pensions would be honourable to receive, as they would 
all have been honestly earned, and none would feel the burden 
oppressive. All looking forward to the same rights and privileges 
when their life's fabour was over, would see it to be their interest, as 
well as their pleasure and duty, to make the resting time of each 
citizen as truly happy and as highly honourable as possible. 



For further details of the scheme, demonstrations of the above facts 
and figures, draft Act of Parliament to put in force, and consideration and 
reply to the various objections which may be raised, see " How It Can Be 
Done," published by the Twentieth Century Press, which can be obtained 
of all booksellers, or direct from the publishers, as. 6d, 




30 



EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS AND PRESS 
NOTICES OF "HOW IT CAN BE DONE." 



" Our author is a man of affairs, and has produced a book like unto himself. 
No word wasted, none out of place. Filled with a purpose, and yet seasoned 
with an assortment of miscellaneous facts which makes it profitable reading. The 
,man who has done business to the tune of millions at home and abroad, and who, 
notwithstanding, has kept his sympathies unseared and his faith unbligbted, is 
worth paying heed to. Such a man is Mr. Richardson, and were it possible to 
have his book read intelligently by our six million voters the morning after the 

election would see the dawn of the new era We congratulate Mr. 

Richardson on a piece of excellent practical work, and bespeak for the book a 
hearty welcome. The Twentieth Century Press has added to its laurels by the 
excellence of the mechanical part of the volume." — Labour Leader. 

" A contribution to the literature of Socialism, and in so far rather notable 
that, not content with the destructive criticism of existing systems, the author 
came forward with a scheme of his own. The book appears to have found favour, 
for a second edition of it has been called for, and supplied by the Twentieth 
Century Press." — Glasgow Herald. 

" . . . . Has reached a second edition, as it deserved to. We trust it will see 
many more. It is sound, sane, and succinct." — Weekly Times and Echo. 

"Such a book as this, ably and calmly written, and actuated throughout by a 
fine ethical purpose, will be useful as a contribution to the literature of the social 
question." — Daily Chronicle. 

" Written in a judicial spirit and in a tone that all Socialists would do well to 
imitate." — Financial Reformer. 

" This suggestive little work is worthy of the attention of all students of socia 
questions." — Westminster Review. 

" We have been presented in recent years with several pictures of the perfec- 
tion attained in Socialist or Communist societies as it has foreshadowed itself to 
one and another of those ardent spirits who, oppressed by the sordid sadness of 
too much of our present national life, find their relief in dreaming of a better 
organisation of society. In such schemes the process by which present conditions 
are to be replaced by those described is passed over, either without remark or 
with but the faintest indication of the method by which the writer imagines the 
gap will be bridged over. In the most recent volume of Messrs. Sonnenschein's 
we are shown in considerable detail a plan which, in the opinion of Mr. 
Richardson, the writer of the book, might remove the difficulties to which we 
have referred. The author has, at any rate, reached some sound conclusions 
on which to base his scheme." — Manchester Guardian. 

" Mr. Richardson, in ' How It Can Be Done,' proposes to bring about the 
social revolution by internal reform. The reform, Mr. Richardson maintains, 
can be accomplished in a generation. The whole thing is well worked out, 
objections are considered, and finally a draft Act of Parliament prepared." — 
Methodist Times 

" This book is by a man of long and successful business experience, and 
will commend itself to practical people. The plan advocated is, to begin with 
the children, and train them for a better social order. Mr. Richardson goes 



3i 

minutely into the cost, and shows how the whole sum could easily be raised, 
and an ample self-supporting co-operative commonwealth built up. This part 
of Ms book is, it seems to me, quite as convincing as the earlier part is beautiful. 
An appendix puts his proposals in the form of a Bill, ready to present to the 
House of Commons. I wish Mr. Richardson were in the House to move it, and 
that the day for moving it had come. It will not be easy to find a book on 
Socialism more worth reading and studying than this one. ' — Brotherhood. 

" To all who are interested in the problems of government and social order 
Mr Richardson's book will come as a welcome addition to the literature dealing 
with these subjects. That we have not yet discovered the philosopher's stone 
which will turn the vast mass of human misery and suffering at one stroke, or 
with many, into endless happiness and beauty, all must sadly admit. That 
Mr. Richardson's book will do something towards discovering it, those who have 
read its terse and lucid pages will gladly acknowledge." — Lincoln Gazette. 

" A verr serious, sane, and well-written book. A consoling contrast to much 
of the wild and foolish talk indulged in on the subject." — The Coming Day. 

" Our author's whole theory of Constructive Socialism is based upon this 
simple, practical remedy for the suffering and misery of which so many little 
ones are to-day the victims. But he adopts this principle with a broad and 
logical thoroughness which is calculated to take away the breath of the penurious 
curmudgeons who question the wisdom of even providing food for the hungry 
and starving little ones. For Mr. Richardson does not suggest merely giving 
food as a charity dole to the most needy. He proposes a complete system of free 
public maintenance and thorough scientific education and mental and physical 
training for all children from their infancy until they become young men and 
young women. In short, Mr Richardson's answer to the inquiry of the 
doubting, practical man, who is almost persuaded to be a Socialist, is : Feed, 

clothe, train and educate the children, and you will develop a new nation 

Of course, before Mr. Richardson's plan can be put into operation legislation is 
necessary, and he gives a draft Bill with that view. It might be objected that, 
before any such legislation could be carried, the people must be converted to 
Socialism ; but this objection might just as reasonably be urged against every 
practical proposal which makes in a Socialist direction. It might be urged 
against an Eight Hours Bill, or Municipal Dwellings, or against any other 
palliative Mr. Richardson's book will help to convert people to Socialism. 
Moreover, there are few people to-day who are avowedly and definitely anti- 
Socialist. We are confronted now by the practical enquirer who wants to know 
' how it can be done.' All sorts of suggestions are being put forward now, as 
to the ' next thing to do,' the best thing to do, and so on. Mr. Richardson 
suggests a plan which at any rate has the merit of being perfectly practical and 

thoroughly sound Our only regret, after perusing the book, is that the 

workers should be so ignorant as not to avail themselves of the political power 
which they possess to send representatives to Parliament to carry into effecl 
the proposals to ably laid before them." — fustic*. 



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